Film: 3128

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Synopsis:

The Road To Tokyo. Second world war two newsreel and film magazine.

Shipping in North America during World War Two. Troop ships preparing to fight against the Japanese. Troop ships in convoy. High point of view of the Canadian coastline. Canadian fortifications along the coast. Fears that Japan will invade Canada or Alaska. Views of gun posts along the coastline. Observation points. Army vehicles and heavy artillery. A man looking through binoculars out to sea searching for Japanese vessels. Canadian patrol ships. Alaskan army bases. View of Catalina flying boat (sea-planes) searching the sea for Japanese ships. Canadian and Alaskan civilians practise an air raid drill, the people, men and women, put on gas masks and lie on the ground. An exercise for medical personnel, a pretend attack and pretend casualties lie on the ground waiting for medical assistance. A car drives up to a secret military base in Canada and is immediately stopped by armed guards.
Army personnel patrol the woods and forests in Canada and Alaska. A soldier climbs up a tall pine tree to see out over the North Pacific.
Text: 'Alaska and the North Pacific are highly vulnerable to bombing and parachute attack. It is in this area hat the New World will feel the impact of Japan.' (A quote attributed to Schichiji Ito - Japanese Military Commander.)
Japanese military and landing forces dressed for sub-arctic conditions in white uniforms. Japanese troops on skis training in preparation to attack Canada and Alaska.
Aerial view of a Canadian city. View of Canadian troops on parade. Troops training in the Rocky Mountains. Allied troops lie on the ground reading maps. Troops on exercise run forward under grenade attack (live ammo training). Canadian and US troops learn judo techniques from Japan to be able to disarm Japanese soldiers carrying rifles. The aim is to use the attackers weapon against himself. Troops train to jump down from very high distances. Troops trained to be tough, they swim across rivers and lakes with their back-packs or kit bags. Troops climb up ropes to scale a cliff face.
Aircraft - troops learn to use rifles to attack low flying enemy aircraft.
Aerial view of the Alaskan mountains. Alaskan Territorial Governor Earnest Gruening in an aircraft surveying the Alaskan mountains. In an office with other men, they sit around a desk examining a map of the region. They plan to build a military highway deep into the Alaskan mountains to protect the region from Japanese attack and safeguarding the route the Lend Lease convoys took to supply the allies, and also to protect the only site of platinum. They plan to build new air bases along the new highway.
City of Edmonton in Canadian western prairies. US Army engineers begin work. Men rolling barrels along a quayside. It is March 1942. Loading barrels and large tractor tyres onto trucks. Men marching along the road carrying their kit bags. Sign by side of the road reads 'Fairbanks 1459 miles'.
Trucks drive along in deep mud, wheels spin in the mud. They are building the greatest road building operation in their history. Bulldozers and earthmovers and men working on building the road north towards the Yukon. The road has to be built before spring. Vehicles with caterpillar tracks push forward through a snowy forest landscape. Army trucks drive through the snow.
View of a sound or large inlet of sea, snowy mountains behind with naval ships at anchor there. Aerial view of aircraft bombers flying in formation. View from an aircraft bomb bay looking down onto the countryside. Bombs dropped on a small town. Japanese aircraft bombing Canadian soil.
Text: 'Japanese troops on Aleutian Islands'. High point of view of buildings burning.
Canadian troops running along the coast. They are on an exercise to stop the Japanese invading Canada. Their opponents in the exercise use amphibious vehicles and landing craft and follow the same tactics as the Japanese used in Malaya. Amphibious tanks move swiftly inland. Troops unload weapons from a truck. View of sniper rifles hidden in the trees. Canadian soldiers fire at the tanks then roll away quickly to keep their position secret from counter-attack. It is a full blown exercise with the soldiers attacking the tanks in densely forested countryside. They use mortar fire and grenades, rifles and falling trees to stop the tanks. Troops move forward to take tanks.
American army engineers drive northwards building the new Alaskan Highway and clearing previously uncharted land. Felling trees with tanks and bulldozers. Troops follow to build the roads by hand. Men with shovels and picks in freezing conditions. Bulldozers drag large spiked rollers over the road to prepare it for the men, it grinds the road flat. Two soldiers stop work to have a cigarette. Troops stop for tea and make camp beside the road they are building. They wash their clothes and hang them out to dry. Troops on parade in their camp, they salute an officer then run to get into a vehicle. Tent towns and saw mills spring up along the route of the new road, a supply chain stretching across the north west Pacific. Vehicles drive along the newly made road through the mountains. Trucks board a ferry to cross a river or lake. Another truck goes through shallow water. An aircraft flies overhead.
3000 miles south the US Army is clearing a path to the Pacific. View of a convoy of battleships. Various shots of battleships firing heavy guns. View of torpedoes being fired. Explosions at sea. Victory at Midway and in the Coral Sea has cleared a sea route for a new offensive against Japan. Views of battleships firing guns.
Aircraft flying overhead. Aerial view of battleship below on fire and trailing thick smoke.
Aerial view of the jungles of New Guinea. US Air Force aircraft fly overhead. Natives below look up at the plane (staged). US Marines have taken an airport from the Japanese. Canadian and Australian troops can land and begin to search the jungle for Japanese troops. View of allied troops in the jungle coming to a native village. Japanese fighters hide in the undergrowth. Japanese soldiers climb up palm trees to act as snipers. Allied bombers blast Japanese positions. Native huts on fire. Allied soldiers in the jungle firing machine guns. Allied soldiers lying on the ground in the jungle. Native hut blown up in a big explosion. Dead Japanese soldiers lie on the ground. Allied soldiers walk among the corpses.
Back in Canada / Alaska. Vehicles move along a snowy road between the mountains. All part of a circling effect against Japan. Canadian and US troops jump off vehicles and set to work in the snow, two men cut a tree trunk in half using a two man saw. Vehicles with ice bound wheels in minus 40 degrees (F). Men use fire to warm up the engines. Vehicles driving through the Yukon.
Aleutian Islands. Battleships and troop carriers landing along the shore. Jeeps rolling off transport vessels onto the shore. Vehicles land pulling heavy artillery guns. Supplies unloaded by hand and stacked up on the beach. Troops prepare for an offensive against the Japanese. Tents and camp set up on the windswept islands in the North Pacific. Fighter aircraft take off from the newly built airfields. Allied bombers head west towards Japan. Aerial view of bombs dropping on Japanese held territory. View of the islands. View of battleship convoys. View of a city from an aircraft. View of Japanese docks and the industry and factories built between Tokyo and Yokohama. Ships in dock and factory chimneys are vulnerable to air attack. Allied bomb making factory. Allies prepare to advance.
A snow covered road. The new supply road, the Alaskan Highway supplies the new Canadian and US air bases. The road was completed five months early in November 1942. Opening ceremony of the new highway. Trucks move out. A map showing Edmonton in Canada and Tokyo in Japan - they are quite close. Map shows the planned route for allied forces to take through Canada, Alaska, Siberia, Russia and China to finally attack Japan itself. 1943. Troops embark on ships. A fleet of ships. Allied troops muster on deck and wave at the camera. Allied troops marching. Soldiers running into battle. Tanks and aircraft support troops - a show of allied strength.

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